Cason Crane is a humble, down to earth, generous, courageous, determined, and driven human being brought up in New Jersey and was the first LGBTQ person to climb the seven summits of the world. At such a young age, to me he stands not only as an inspiration for the LGBTQ community but also a symbolic representation of change. I believe Cason Crane is changing the world step-by-step, summit by summit! I was fortunate to be able to interview Crane over the winter break and gain insight and knowledge, and I would like to share that with all of you to inspire you to reach new heights – a lot like Cason did.
So really who is Cason Crane, where is he from, and how did his story begin?
His journey
He had two different starting points, one would be his mountaineering journey that started when he was fifteen, when he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, with his mother, which hooked him onto climbing and mountaineering. And the second was the start of his Rainbow Summits journey, the suicide prevention program, which started when he was in high school. Cason lost a very close friend of his to suicide; this tragedy was quite shocking, which caused Cason to reflect and grieve and took him a couple years before he found a way to connect both his love for mountaineering and his desire to make a difference in suicide prevention. This resulted in the Rainbow Summits project.
Advice for other youth
He said, “First thing I’d say is that you are already on the right track, if you are interested and reading about tips and want tips, that is the first step. Then from there I would say the most important thing is just find an issue that you are passionate about. The final thing I am going to say is that it is going to be difficult, we are all going to face challenges, especially when you are trying to give back; don’t get discouraged. There are going to be times when it feels like it is so frustrating but you just have to keep going one day after another, one foot in front of another and eventually, after 100 people say no, one person will say yes.
Challenges
The challenges Crane faced came in three different forms. One of which was physical challenges pertaining to climbing. He says, “When your back is sore and your shoulders are aching, and you are carrying literally 150 pounds of gear, those are the times I just had to buck up and say ‘okay, I can do this,’ literally one foot in front of another. I’d put in my ear buds, turn my iPod on and just get into a rhythm.”
The second set of challenges would be with the charitable giving side. He discovered that he was not the best fundraiser and believes he wouldn’t have been able to do this project if he wasn’t so passionate about suicide prevention and the Trevor Project, the number one suicide prevention project in the US. It was tough to constantly push himself to talk about it; talk about the pain of a loved one passing away due to suicide. Forcing himself to talk to strangers was a challenge in itself, yet he believes that it really added to his entire experience and helped the project immensely.
The third challenge was personal, because he spent a long time in different locations by himself. He managed to cope with this by realizing who his true friends and family were. He figured this out by realizing who he could literally call up at any hour, any time zone and have lengthy converstations with. Once he was able to discover who these people were it really helped him to cope with being alone in various locations around the world.
The Rainbow Summits Project
The Rainbow Summits Project is a combination of two of Cason’s passions; his desire to help suicide prevention and his love for mountaineering. The idea was that he would climb the seven summits (the highest mountain on each continent) using that as a platform to raise money and awareness for the Trevor Project (suicide prevention program supporting LGBTQ youth.) He started in February 2012 and climbed the seven summits. For the last year and a half, he has been going around talking to schools, groups, talking in seminars to promote awareness for the Rainbow Summits project.
The Rainbow Summits Project is geared towards suicide prevention for not only the LGTBQ society but any one who is in need of help. It also helps the LGTBQ presence in athletics, which in a very encouraging fashion has been expanding over the years. For example, in Calgary there is an LGTBQ speed skater training for the Olympics who is openly gay, along with many others. This is very encouraging for young LGTBQ youth who need athletic role models and inspiration, and also helps youth be open and confident about who they truly are.
Outcomes of the project
Crane is achieving his goals of awareness raising and fundraising. He also feels as though he has gained a lot of knowledge and has been able to experience so much in such a short amount of time.
Ending remarks by Cason Crane:
“Young people can make changes in their communities, there are resources there even if it might seem as if there isn’t any. By being creative and thinking outside of the box I think people can discover that there is more resources than they think and if they find an issue they are passionate about they shouldn’t let anyone change that, they should be stepping up and taking charge, if we all do that as youth, as awesome youth, we are going to live in a much better world then the one given to us by the previous generation.”